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Onward develops bold and practical ideas for the next generation of centre right thinkers and leaders

REPORT
Green Shoots

How to drive innovation to meet net zero

REPORT
Network Effects

New Onward dataset reveals for the first time how many jobs are reachable by car and public transport in every small local area in Britain - exposing a shocking transport gap between places.

REPORT
Fair Funding

Analysing the current formula used to decide local authority funding and how we should fix the outdated system.

Dec 9
8:30-
10:00
EVENT

Business Network breakfast: Lord Barwell and Tom Newton-Dunn

Business Network
A private breakfast for Onward’s Business Network with Lord Barwell and Tom Newton Dunn.
with:
Nov 16
9:00-
10:00
EVENT

Reclaiming Populism

How economic fairness can win back disenchanted voters?
with:
Oct 5
13:30-
14:30
EVENT

Healthy investment

CPC21
How can life sciences clusters drive economic growth?
with:
Recent press
Workington looks to Boris Johnson to ‘level up’ the town
The budget holy trinity: R&D, skills and foreign investment
Will Tanner speaks to Centre for Cities
In its constitutional centenary could power be better shared within the UK going forward?
Labour gives up on ‘pork barrel’ battle with Tories
Turning the tide in ‘left behind’ areas: Learning from 60 years of regeneration policy
REPORT
Green Shoots

How to drive innovation to meet net zero

REPORT
Network Effects

New Onward dataset reveals for the first time how many jobs are reachable by car and public transport in every small local area in Britain - exposing a shocking transport gap between places.

REPORT
Fair Funding

Analysing the current formula used to decide local authority funding and how we should fix the outdated system.

Nov 16
9:00-
10:00
EVENT

Reclaiming Populism

How economic fairness can win back disenchanted voters?
with:
Dec 9
8:30-
10:00
EVENT

Business Network breakfast: Lord Barwell and Tom Newton-Dunn

Business Network
A private breakfast for Onward’s Business Network with Lord Barwell and Tom Newton Dunn.
with:
Oct 4
14:15-
15:15
EVENT

Competitive Advantage

CPC21
How to keep UK financial and professional services firing on all cylinders?
with:

Onward develops bold and practical ideas for the next generation of centre right thinkers and leaders

Our mission​

Onward is a modernising think tank whose mission is to develop bold and practical ideas to boost economic opportunity and strengthen communities in all parts of the United Kingdom.

We are not affiliated to any party but believe in a mainstream conservatism. We recognise the value of markets and support the good that government can do, and believe that a strong society is the foundation of both. We want to seize the opportunities of the future while preserving the accumulated knowledge of the past. We believe that most people are hard working, aspirational and decent, but that many do not have the opportunities to fulfil their potential.

Our goal is to address the needs of the whole country: young as well as old; urban as well as rural; in all parts of the UK – particularly places that feel neglected or ignored in Westminster – by working with ordinary people directly and developing practical policies that work.

"Into the arena, Onward stepped. The in-flight refueller. The next modernising thinktank. The engine which ensured that just as the process of government might be wearing thin, the Conservative Party was able to renew and refurbish its message, its personnel, its appeal and its coalition.”
Rt Hon Michael Gove MP
Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
“The question is how we forge an open-feeling, forward-looking conservatism that speaks equally to all. And I believe Onward is exactly what we need.”
Baroness Davidson
Former Leader of the Scottish Conservatives and Member of the House of Lords
“Thinktanks are expected to think the unthinkable but I don’t want us to think the unworkable. We have to think things that work politically, that is that pay some attention to whether people support them, where the costs fall and whether they work in practice."
Lord Finkelstein
Chairman of Onward and Member of the House of Lords
"The work of Onward has already, in the last three years, has been fantastic. I have followed it closely, I have pinched a whole bunch of your ideas, but I want to pinch some more ... I need the ideas and I know Onward has the energy to provide them."
Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Our Work

Our work is focused on the most pressing issues facing the United Kingdom today. Our four programmes are:

Levelling Up

Reducing economic disparities between places

Social Fabric

Repairing the ties that bind communities together

Getting to Zero

Practical and popular ways to decarbonise the economy

Future Politics

Understanding our changing political settlement

Press

Our work is regularly featured in print, broadcast and online media, including through op-eds and broadcast interviews from the Onward team.

The Times Red Box

The budget holy trinity: R&D, skills and foreign investment

Will Tanner writes for Times Red Box ahead of the Chancellor's budget

Smart Thinking

In its constitutional centenary could power be better shared within the UK going forward?

Jenevieve Treadwell writes for Smart Thinking, discussing how power should be shared going forward.

Bennett Institute

Transport infrastructure investment is not the best way to level up

James Blagden, Senior Researcher at Onward, wrote for the Bennett Institute at Cambridge University about the effect of transport connectivity on regional earnings.

A green energy revolution to power Britain’s net zero ambitions

Ted Christie-Miller writes for the Yorkshire Post, making the case for an innovation drive to power a green industrial revolution.

UK lagging behind other countries in developing green tech to get to net zero

Media coverage summary of Green Shoots

Reaction

Net zero: without innovation it won’t happen

Onward Researcher Francesca Fraser writes for Reaction on the need to spur innovation in order to reach net zero.

The Times Red Box

The budget holy trinity: R&D, skills and foreign investment

Will Tanner writes for Times Red Box ahead of the Chancellor's budget

Smart Thinking

In its constitutional centenary could power be better shared within the UK going forward?

Jenevieve Treadwell writes for Smart Thinking, discussing how power should be shared going forward.

Bennett Institute

Transport infrastructure investment is not the best way to level up

James Blagden, Senior Researcher at Onward, wrote for the Bennett Institute at Cambridge University about the effect of transport connectivity on regional earnings.

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